The Bank of Thailand expects initial use cases under its open banking policy to be implemented next year, aiming to provide consumers with better access to financial services.
The consumer sector, private sector and public sector agreed in principle with the open banking policy following a consultation paper titled "Open Banking Data for Consumer Empowerment" issued by the regulator last year, said Wipawin Promboon, the central bank's senior director for the financial institutions strategy department.
In general, use cases for open banking data are classified into three groups: loan accessibility, debt management and wealth management.
The implementation of open data service should prioritise consumer data security and privacy, she said.
"Most importantly, data-sharing fees among financial service providers should be reasonable to allow consumers to access funding sources, strengthening the open banking data ecosystem in the long term," Ms Wipawin said.
Following the public hearing on the consultation paper, the central bank is scheduled to issue guidelines for open data service in April this year, then set up an open banking data committee in the first half of the year.
Thakorn Piyapan, president of TMBThanachart Bank, said collaboration among all related parties is a key factor driving the open banking initiative, following the discussion hosted by the regulator yesterday.
Given a robust database and the digital infrastructure platforms of many organisations, he said it is not necessary to develop new infrastructure to support digital innovations.
Mr Thakorn said the bank has adopted some open data services such as debt consolidation, which help customers better manage debt at lower interest rates.
"We expect to provide better debt consolidation service using open banking data," he said. "For example, flagging customer types under debt restructuring, which should help the bank charge interest rates based on the risk profile of the borrower, while helping the borrower manage the debt better."
Chonladet Khemarattana, president of the Thai Fintech Association, said the use cases for fintech startups include digital lending service, wealth management service and a financial fraud detection platform.
"Regarding new use case development, the regulators and all parties should focus on providing financial literacy about borrowing, finance and debt management, as well as raising awareness about personal data protection and privacy," said Mr Chonladet.